Here we are at the end of 2021 – and it’s fairly frustrating to read, watch and listen to news coverage about arguments over whether election counts are correct. There is, after all, a very simple solution to this polarizing issue. But “simple” and “easy”, of course, are not always synonymous. It would be a simple matter to create software that permits voters to access all the anonymous votes that were cast and to reassure themselves that theirs was counted – and to reassure themselves that the total count is correct. (In fact, the software has already been written; no surprise: it’s called “Voteword”) On the other hand, it’s not easy to implement this solution in the face of budgetary constraints, justified fears of hacking, entrenched political interests and just plain large-system inertia – i.e., “lack of socio-political will”.
Imagine, dear reader, if the good people of Maricopa County, Arizona could simply get on the Web to see if their vote was counted. And imagine if they could then count, for themselves, all the votes that were cast – and then compare the total number of votes that were cast to the simple (simple!) total of people who walked into the polling locations or mailed in their ballot. This ability would go a long way toward restoring our faith in the way elections are held in this country. Of course, opening up the process this way will never convince die-hard conspiracy lovers. Still, most people realize that even if bad actors managed to manipulate the file of votes (after those votes have been counted, by the way) it would remain the case that each voter can examine the file at any time – again and again and again.
Oh, and that file – the one that contains all the votes for a particular precinct? Before it’s placed on the Web, the votes are counted and the totals are reported. And then, also before it’s placed on the Web, the file can be homomorphically encrypted so that no change can be made without alerting the IT folks.
We can do this, folks. We really can.
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